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Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a book that I've been wanting to read for awhile. Other books have come before it...and now I wish I would have read this one sooner. It was so good! I didn't want to put it down while I was reading it, which doesn't really happen with many books. When you find one that does, it's like finding a diamond. It's an absolutely awesome thing :)

To start off, I think the cover of this book is really appealing. There isn't really much on the cover, which makes you wonder what the book could possibly be about. It draws you in because you want to see what could be hiding behind such a simple cover. However, the story that's behind the cover, in this case, is in no way simple. It's deep, thoughtful, and really makes you think when you're reading it. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about Charlie, a boy who is just starting out high school after having one of his friends commit suicide. The book is told in letters, Charlie is writing to a friend that we never learn the name of. He's telling this friend the story him starting high school, the struggles he has and the friends that he makes. His life is so different, yet it's so similar to any other kid who is just starting high school. He's scared because he doesn't have any friends, he's not exactly the most social person, and he's kind of known as the weird kid. He has all these things working against him when he starts high school. The story follows him through his first year of high school, the highs and the lows, and in my opinion, it's a spectacular story.

One of the best things about this book is the voice. Charlie has such a unique voice, and I absolutely love it. I like the way that it seems like he's talking to you, the reader, it makes you feel like you're more a part of the story. And the way he grows from the beginning to the end of the novel is both believable and amazing. He learns so much about himself and other people. As a main character, Charlie is definitely a very strong one, one that has depth to him and really makes you think about yourself, what you would have done if you were in Charlie's shoes. Not only is Charlie a strong character, but so are his friends and his siblings. They're not flat characters, and that makes the story more interesting and believable. Stephen Chbosky created characters that have real struggles, characters that actually mean something. And I think that's what really made the novel so good. To have these characters that all types of people can relate to. There's a character for people who struggle with many different problems, like abuse, drugs and alcohol, gay and lesbianism, and many other things. Chbosky deals with all these problems in a very realistic way, and it's refreshing, even though it wasn't published recently.

I think I was kind of repetitive in that paragraph...sorry. I was trying to get all my thoughts out, and they weren't very organized. Hopefully you can make sense of them. But the book I'll be reading next is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.